The decisive step to reach an agreement in the Floyd vs. City of New York appeals case is one that is essential to rebuilding the faith in the communities affected by years of the NYPD's mishandling of stop-and-frisk.

While some are worried the abandonment of the practice, which flourished under the Bloomberg Administration, could result in skyrocketing crime numbers, the cooperation from the NYPD promised by newly elected Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is one needed to help rebuild towards fair policing practices.

According to stop-and-frisk statistics from the American Civil Liberties Union of New York State, over 80,000 people of the 97,296 stopped in 2002 were innocent, or roughly 82 percent. In 2003 the number of innocent increased to 87 percent, nearly all of whom were either black or Latino, the data shows.

From then on, through numbers recorded into the first three quarters of 2013, the NYCLU records persist to depict an unbalanced focus on minorities throughout the city, virtually all of whom were ultimately innocent of any crimes.

Although former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg both threatened the evils that could come to a city without stop and frisk, other major metropolitan cities saw even more declines in crime than NYC from 2001 to 2010, which dropped by just 27 percent during the heyday of the exercise.

In the verdict found in Floyd vs. City of New York, the judge announced a court-appointed monitor who is to work with community members wrongfully affected by the practice and to oversee NYPD exercises of the law for a trial of three years.

The people of New York City have spoken with their vote for progressive leadership, and with the numbers on their side, the de Blasio Administration should be praised for taking an approach that aims to rebuild the trust in communities formerly lost due to the un-Constitutional practices of the NYPD.